Did I Get Taken?

What a good weekend. I honestly cannot remember all the details, but I can tell by my relaxed feeling today that it was a great break from the norm.

What I do know is that we slept in on Saturday. Even our cat didn’t wake us up astronomically early, as if often the case. It had rained throughout the night and all day it was a cloudy overcast day. It has been a long time since we have had a dull day with dull weather. So very nice!

I decided that we would head over to Discount Tire and have Holly’s rear tires looked at. I am close to replacing her front brakes and while I was getting help on that our quasi-mechanic friend expressed concern over the status of Holly’s rear tires. He said it looked like uneven wear and a possible alignment problem. So I headed to Discount Tire to get a professional opinion.

The man that helped was the manager. He was a nice fellow. He looked at the rear tire and immediately said that it wasn’t alignment it was that we hadn’t rotated the tires. What? Ok. How often are you suppose to rotate your tires, I ask. Every 6,000 miles, he says. Ooops. How many miles has it been, he asks. I respond meekly, 35,000. Oh, is all he says.

He then looks at the front tires. He has the same diagnosis. I ask if we can rotate front to back and buy two new ones. He gives me this half agreeing smirk and says yes, but your front tires are pretty worn and who knows how long they will last. He suggest four new tires.

I quickly do a scenario in my head of my nine month pregnant wife calling me in Friday afternoon traffic on Central Expressway with a blown out rear tire and decide that safe is better than sorry. I have absolutely no idea how much tires cost. For that matter, I don’t know how much anything cost, short of a gallon of gas, for a car. (2.61 by the way) He begins by giving me a lot of details on warranties and mileage that is similar to me trying to explain the debt accounting accruals to Holly. A lot of ‘uhhuhs’ and head nods. He works his way through three tires, with the starting price of $678 and a low price of $616. At the bewilderment on my face of how much these cost he does offer a “low end basic tire” that is $414.

I am thoroughly confused at this point. What is the difference between a 678 and a 414, besides the warranty? He goes through it and convinces me that the 414 isn’t worth the money. I go for the 616 and call it good.

So the question is, did I get taken? How do you make spot on decisions on a subject you have no knowledge of? Would it be appropriate to say, “Hold on. I am going to call my dad” when you are 28 years old? The line in that place was atrocious as well. Anyway we have four shiny new tires, and a lot lighter pocketbook!